Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Leveling off?

Hi All.

DD7 is at the end of first grade. Overall, we are satisfied with the school she attends, her teacher, and her gifted program.

Yet, this last marking period, her reading scores leveled off. She started out first grade reading at a 4th grade level, last marking period she was at 4.9, and again she is at 4.9. Her teacher included a note saying not to worry, that kids who are this high often level off. Is that the case?

I don't know if she is just not getting reading material that is at a challenging enough level? There are many kids in her class that fall into the gifted range, so I would guess that she is in a reading group with higher level readers.

Or maybe it has to do with what she chooses to read?

Any ideas/advice is appreciated.
Thanks!

I guess it would be worth it to confirm that she is in the highest reading group, and to see what level the books for that group are - if they are 3.4 for example, then everyone else is probably congradulating themselves that 1st graders are so above level. So there could be many gifted readers and yet none who can keep up with your dd. Or they may be ready and able, and yet the books might be pitched at an unchallenging level.

I 'love' those 'don't worry it happens to lots of kids' comments - I'll bet if you stopped feeding them then lots of kids would level off on their weight gain too but no one wants to try this and find out. But I do think that part of being human is to be more alert to singular events than common ones.

Love andMore Love,
Grinity

There are several possibilities for this observation, IMO:

1) child isn't being assessed at a level commensurate with ability. (So she's at the ceiling-- and was last marking period, too)

2) child has learned that to fit in, she needs to act like other children, and is choosing reading material that makes her fit in better with peers whose readiness level is lower than hers,

3) child doesn't have any access to reading materials at her readiness level,

4) child has discovered that higher level reading materials which ARE available to her do not have the same interest level for her, given her age.

Of those, only 4) is really something not to worry about, in my experience. The others all indicate some degree of poor fit educationally, and are worrisome.

I've definitely observed factors 1, 2, and 4 with my daughter.

There is a way to mitigate item 4; go backwards in time and choose children's literature with publication dates in the 1960's or earlier. There, reading levels up to lexiles as high as 1000 or so is aimed at children who are very definitely pre-adolescent. This is a very distinct problem with the general trend of children's literature in the past thirty years; there has been a lot of focus on RELUCTANT readers and those with poor foundational skills, which led to a lot of material with low lexile levels and higher age interest levels. My first grader could easily have read Twilight, but she (appropriately, IMO) had no interest in doing so.

She was interested in books written for children, like L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz series, or J.M. Barry's Peter Pan. She just didn't know that they existed until I started steering her toward those books.

Next time you are in your child's classroom, take a look at the class library and ask about the range of lexile levels. It might be very enlightening.

Ya, I am kind of thinking that she is beyond the others in her class. I'm feeling bad that I haven't checked out her reading group and the school year is almost over (1 quarter left).

I'm going to leave her teacher an e-mail and see if I can observe within the next week or so. DD has told me the names of the kids in her reading group- and they are all bright kids, to be sure. But I do think DD is still ahead, and can handle more sophisticated reading material. Right now, at home she is reading "Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing" as well as "The Diary of Anne Frank" - totally different types of books, but they fit DD to a "T". "Tales" she reads again and again and is an "easy" book for her, I think she is on her 3rd time through. "Anne Frank" she reads with me at bedtime (maybe an entry or 2) and we spend a lot of time discussing both vocabulary and history.

Thanks for your input, Grinity.

Howlerkarma - Yes! DD loved "Wizard of Oz" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"! I have donated a few books to the classroom library, but probably could donate more. I am wondering about 1 and 2, as well. Thanks.

For us it was this, but ir regards to not enjoying reading time in school:I had to talk to our ds that he is not limited to classroom books or school library, but should feel free to take any book from home to school. His teacher was ok with that. Now there are several other kids who are reading our J. Verne books in his classroom.

It's not too late to get a better reading placement and you are early for getting a good placement for next year!

for comparison, my son's school taught Anne Frankas a 6 week project in 6th grade. I think you will be hard pressed to find other 1st graders who are read for that academically or emotionally.

Excellent advice from HM regarding 'pre-1960 books'
some exceptions that are 'great for young teens - preread to see if you think they are good for your 7 year old'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Lowry especially The Giver and Gossamer
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Index-WesternShore.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Wynne_Jones espescially Crestomansi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Tolan
we liked:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Claidi_Journals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamora_Pierce

Enjoy!
Grinity

This I why I love reading Grinity's posts! Complete common sense.

May I ask how you are determining her reading level? Sometimes, the tests only determine up to a certain level, so if she hit the celiling, the highest it will report is the level it stopped calculating at.

I would worry about HOW she is reading when she is reading than to what any number would tell you she is at, for the reason mentioned above.

I had a teacher tell me DD's wordcount per minute only to find out that she left out that there weren't any more words on the page left to read, so it wasn't a true picture of her ability.

Priceless! One size doesn't fit all!